Can you believe it?? I sure can’t. Time flies when you’re having fun. I’ve had a lot of that here. Over the past year I’ve learned from some dang talented people and gotten to work on some really cool projects. This internship has given me opportunities I never imagined I would get in college. To reflect, I want to talk about my top three experiences I’ve had at my time here at Swanson.
#3 – Employee Passion Projects
My fellow intern, Carlos and I were part of the revamp to the agency’s Instagram and we implemented a series of employee spotlights highlighting the passion projects our coworkers do outside the hours of eight to five. I have really enjoyed conducting these interviews for a couple of reasons. First, I love getting to know people beyond the copywriting team. They’re dope and different from me and have unique hobbies and I love learning what they’re passionate about. My other favorite part about this project is finding the personality trait they have that connects what they do every day at work and their passion projects afterhours. For example, an art director I interviewed bartends on the side and used to brew his own beer. The connection between design and making cocktails is that he’s naturally a creative problem solver. Another designer I interviewed powerlifts and the connecting trait for her was her drive to continuously get better and take advantage of the opportunity to prove herself in a room traditionally full of men in both design and the weight room.
#2 - Dorothy Lynch Twitter Persona
If you’re from the Midwest odds are you grew up with a certain bottle of bright orange, sweet and spicy salad dressing on your table that is none other than Dorothy Lynch. The team that manages this account at Swanson Russell was tasked with making their social media relevant with little to no budget. To do this, they wanted to run the Twitter from the perspective of who Ms. Dorothy Lynch would be as a person. I was pulled on to the team to help bring this gal to life. We all agreed that Dorothy should be a grandma, and from there they let me off leash to go create Grandma Dorothy. I came up with an old lady who doesn’t quite understand social media (but she’s working on it), speaks in Midwestern dialect (eats supper, not dinner), loves the Huskers more than anything, would do anything for anyone (sweet) but doesn’t hold back the smack talk to opposing sports teams (spicy). In all honesty, I initially had Dorothy being a little spicier, like spiked the punch at the church Christmas party spicy, but that got vetoed and we went with just sassy instead of wild. Other than that slight change the team loved the ideas I suggested, and when you see Dorothy on Twitter today, you can see all these traits come through from the ideas I put up on the brainstorm board that day.
#1 - Commercial for a Local Fast Food Chain
The peak of my advertising career so far happened when I was at a minor-league baseball game with my grandparents and I looked up on the big screen to see a commercial I had written playing for the whole ballpark to see. My jaw dropped, I shook my grandma’s arm, said “WATCH THIS!” and then proceeded to accidentally tear up. I told her I wrote it after it ended and asked her what she thought of it and she said “I couldn’t hear it, but it looked great.” Classic. Despite Gramms not being able to hear it, it was a moment I’ll never forget. I’ll also never forget how involved my boss let me be in that campaign. From the concepting stage, to script approval, to seeing animation proofs, choosing voice talent, being in the studio on the recording day and then watching the final version of the commercial before it was published was an experience I never ever thought I would be able to have as an intern.
The thing about Swanson Russell that my fellow interns and I always come back to is how everyone is treated as an equal here, even us at the very bottom of the hierarchy. We’re given the same opportunities senior copywriters have and treated as though we’re full-time adults who’ve been working here for years. The most high-up people at the agency never hesitate to give us their time and advice and for that, I feel so fortunate to have this place as my space to start out in the ad world.
An extra special thank you to my boss Charlie Stephan for looking past the fact I was 20 minutes late to my interview (whoops, I had the wrong time down and thought I was 10 minutes early) and giving me a chance. His belief in me and the investment my supervisor, Kelsey, has put in me with all the reviews and feedback over the last 365 days are things I am so grateful for. I’ll cut myself off before I get too sappy, but to all the folks at Swanson Russell who have given me their time, thank you so much.
